Between 2013 and 2015 a man named Evaldas Rimasauskas pulled off one of the most audacious frauds in the history of the internet by simply sending emails. Rimasauskas knew that both Google and Facebook were regular clients of a Taiwanese hardware manufacturer called Quanta Computer, which built servers and components for both companies. So he registered a fake company in Latvia using the exact same name. He opened bank accounts under that name in Latvia and Cyprus. He forged invoices, contracts and letters that appeared to be signed by Quanta executives. He even had fake corporate seals made. Then he started sending invoices to Google and Facebook. For two years both companies wired money to his accounts without flagging anything suspicious. By the time anyone noticed he had collected $99 million from Facebook and $23 million from Google. $122 million total, transferred willingly by two of the most sophisticated technology companies on the planet. Rimasauskas laundered the money through a network of bank accounts across Latvia, Cyprus, Slovakia, Lithuania, Hungary and Hong Kong. He was arrested in Lithuania in 2017 and extradited to the United States. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud. A federal judge in Manhattan sentenced him to five years in prison and ordered him to forfeit $49.7 million.

Between 2013 and 2015 a man named Evaldas Rimasauskas pulled off one of the most audacious frauds in the history of the internet by simply sending emails. Rimasauskas knew that both Google and Facebook were regular clients of a Taiwanese hardware manufacturer called Quanta Computer, which built servers and components for both companies. So he registered a fake company in Latvia using the exact same name. He opened bank accounts under that name in Latvia and Cyprus. He forged invoices, contracts and letters that appeared to be signed by Quanta executives. He even had fake corporate seals made. Then he started sending invoices to Google and Facebook. For two years both companies wired money to his accounts without flagging anything suspicious. By the time anyone noticed he had collected $99 million from Facebook and $23 million from Google. $122 million total, transferred willingly by two of the most sophisticated technology companies on the planet. Rimasauskas laundered the money through a network of bank accounts across Latvia, Cyprus, Slovakia, Lithuania, Hungary and Hong Kong. He was arrested in Lithuania in 2017 and extradited to the United States. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud. A federal judge in Manhattan sentenced him to five years in prison and ordered him to forfeit $49.7 million.